Microsoft built NBC's site (with an assist from WPP's Schematic, which built the actual video player), operated it, and footed the bill for bandwidth, hosting, Limelight (LLNW) CDN services, etc. This wasn't a forgone conclusion: A source familiar with the matter tells us that NBC was still negotiating with Microsoft rival Adobe (ADBE) about using that company's Flash software to power its video as recently as December 2007.

We don't know the financial details of the transaction: It's possible that Microsoft paid NBC for the privilege, but we also assume that Microsoft was able to share in the ad revenue that NBC generated, since Microsoft promoted the site on its giant MSN portal.

We're also not sure how much of that video quality is due to Silverlight, and how much of it has to do with source material, the way the player was designed, and a host of other factors. But in the absence of other information, we have to conclude that Silverlight works pretty darn well. And that's exactly what Microsoft was hoping for.

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Another Online Olympic Winner: Microsoft (MSFT)

NBC made a risky bet trusting its Olympics video to Microsoft's Silverlight -- a newish plugin that half of its Web visitors didn't have pre-installed. And it worked pretty darn well -- exactly what Microsoft was hoping for.